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Wanderung 11

A Tantalizing Taste of the Texas Tropical Trail

January-February 2006

Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 - Volksmarch in Denton, Texas.

I reassessed our situation the next morning when I broke off one of the storage shelves in the door of the refrigerator. It dawned on me that it might be a good idea to try to find a replacement shelf plus a few new lug nuts for the trailer wheels to replace the ones I had chewed up while changing tires. In our camping guide we found an RV supply store about 15 miles north in Denton, and in our Volksmarch guide we found that Denton also offered a 10-kilomter walk that sounded nice. The combination was just too good to pass up, so instead of traveling on we jumped in the truck to head north to Denton. Things didn't go quite as planned, of course; after all, they hardly ever do.

The camping supply store stocked trailer refrigerators like ours, although at astonishingly high prices (over $1,000!). Unfortunately they didn't seem to sell the shelves separately. They also did not sell the lug nuts we needed, so except for finding some glue/sealant I thought I could use, that stop was a bust. Still, we thought we could take advantage of the Denton Volksmarch so we drove over to the local Whattaburger and asked for the walk box, only to be informed that it had been removed the previous day! I again telephoned the Point of Contact listed for the walk, but this time I was in luck and he answered right away. He said that it was all a misunderstanding and he was bringing the walk box back that same day, so if we waited an hour we should be able to do the walk. Well, that sounded reasonable and we really needed the exercise, so we headed over to Wendy's for lunch and then came back an hour later to find the box and do the walk.

The Denton walk started at a small city park and led us directly over to the North Texas University on one side of town. The university had a very pretty campus with modern brick buildings, for the most part. In the center, however, sat a much older and more ornate administration building with a classical clock tower that we thought very attractive.


 

We left the campus area and walked through a district of large old mansions, apparently left over from some boom time in the past. One majestic 4,000+ square foot, 6-bedroom mansion was for sale for $500,000, which in my mind was not a bad price for a huge house on the historic register.

In the middle of the city square we found a beautiful example of Victorian architecture; I assume it was the county courthouse or administrative center. The inevitable memorial to the Confederate Army was a stone arch located on the south side of the building. The rest of historic downtown Denton was charming, with some well preserved old storefronts. I particularly liked the 1901 opera house located just off the northeast corner of the square. The exterior looked to be in perfect shape and it seemed a shame that they could not have renovated the interior and revitalized the opera house as a venue for live theatric performances and the like.

From the historic district we worked our way back west to the park and along the way we found out just how out of shape we were. We were as tired after 7 kilometers of walking as we usually are after 10 kilometers, so we were at least 30% out of condition, and after 10 kilometers our muscles were tight and our feet were throbbing. Sigh. It's so easy to get out of condition and so hard to get back in shape, at least when you are over 50!

As a result we took it easy the rest of the day, checking our maps and brochures for campgrounds and trying to figure out where we were going to go next. We considered going to San Antonio next, but we couldn't find good campgrounds around there and I would have had to drive the rig through Austin, which after my experience the previous year in Wanderung 8, I really didn't relish at all. After much discussion back and forth, we settled on heading west to Odessa, Texas, and then south to Big Bend National Park, possibly swinging by San Antonio on our way back east. The rest of the evening we spent working on our computers and finishing "A Dangerous Mourning" before turning in for the night.

Copyright 2006 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Prolog Map Epilog

January 06
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February 2006
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